Driving the moves: avoiding big share-price drops if company names get attached to accounting questions and defusing comparisons to Enron. ''Anybody with a confusing story is probably being penalized,'' says Janet Pegg, accounting analyst at Bear Stearns.

Accounting worries continued to hurt stocks Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 158 points to 9745. The Nasdaq composite plunged 55 to 1751 -- its lowest since Nov. 2.

G. Peter Wilson, president-elect of the American Accounting Association, expects a series of pre-emptive moves by companies to defuse potential accounting-related questions. Already:

* IBM on Tuesday confirmed it will divulge more details about its income in earnings reports, including sales and losses from investments in other companies. Even so, IBM shares dropped for a second consecutive session to $99.54.

IBM, criticized for years for not revealing more financial information, changed its policy in response to requests by investors and analysts, it said. The New York Times reported Friday that IBM hadn't given investors enough details about the effect on earnings of a $300 million gain booked when it sold an optical unit last year.

* General Electric says it will disclose more details about its businesses, including its GE Capital unit, in its annual report in March. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and PepsiCo also have recently said they'll disclose more financial details.

Meanwhile, Qwest Communications International, which has watched its shares plummet because of accounting concerns, last week said it will hold weekly conference calls, so investors and analysts can ask questions. ''I want to be out there making sure you are comfortable and you know what Qwest is about,'' Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio said in a conference call.

Experts say other companies will likely take similar steps. The shift, some warn, could create even more investor uncertainty in the short run. ''When investors look carefully under the hood for the first time, they may not like what they see,'' says Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany.

Investors will get a better look at companies at the end of March, when most of them file their annual reports. ''Investors are going to get a lot more information than they ever got before,'' Pegg says.

Adds Chuck Hill, director of research for Thomson Financial/First Call, which tracks analysts' earning estimates: ''We are going to see better disclosure, particularly on (items) they would try to hide.'' The most common: Sales of assets, such as real estate or a division, that ''make earnings look better than they really are,'' Hill says.

-- By Jon Swartz and Noelle Knox